sell your company on employee advocacy
TRANSCRIPT
HOW TO
Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
Everything You Need to Get Internal Buy-in for Your Employee Advocacy Program
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2How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
Table of Contents
Introducing Advocate Marketing 3
The Power of Employee Advocacy 5
Achieving Top Level Support 8
Employee Advocacy is Happening Now 11
Proven Results: Advocate Marketing Benchmarks 14
Your Company’s Employee Advocacy Revolution 20
Connect with Advocate Marketing Pioneers 23
Employee Advocacy Training & Compliance 25
Employee Advocacy Launch Breakdown 31
Conclusion: Employee Advocates: 33
Your Most Powerful Marketers
Key Takeaways 34
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3How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy 33
Introducing Advocate Marketing
Companies can no longer communicate in a vacuum. Consumer communication networks have vastly changed since the days of TV, print and banner ads. With social media, the barriers to access have been removed and consumers now can not only talk directly to brands — they prefer it. A new kind of marketing has emerged that places value on quality interactions with consumers. Conversations matter. Marketing no longer happens in isolation.
What’s Employee Advocacy?
It’s taking the passion and expertise of your workforce and using it to fuel interactions with your prospects and customers online.
How Does Employee Advocacy Work?
The average consumer on social media is able to connect and influence more people over various social networks than ever before. Your employees are a part of those networks. By giving them the opportunity and the right tools, they can shape conversations with their connections about your brand. Social media and communication professionals already know the value of employee advocacy. And as experts, they’re in the best position to rally support within their organization to launch an employee advocacy program to drive business goals.
How Do You Get that Support?
This ebook will give you everything you need to get internal buy-in for your employee advocacy program.
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EMPLOYEEADVOCACY
Empowering your employees to connect and engage
their social media networks with your brand.
4How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
5How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy 5
The Power of Employee Advocacy
Advocate marketing is the #1 way to engage and communicate with stakeholders online.
Social Media is trapped with a small group of professionals. They are limited by their size and network reach, both of which are dwarfed by the sheer volume and reach of employee networks. Enabling hundreds and thousand of employees to share content will increase awareness, engagement and sales.
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Intel Employee Advocate
“I have been at Intel over 15 years and for the first time I felt really connected to driving our product in the market.”
Social Media Team
All Employees
66
MORE POWERFUL135 brand advocates are more powerful
than 1,000,000 fans.
{ Tweet This }
6How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
77
YOUR EMPLOYEES’
PASSIONis greater than your
sponsored message.
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
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Achieving Top Level Support
This all sounds great, but the most successful social enterprise programs all have one thing in common: Top level support. Regardless of industry size or marketing budget, selling a new program internally can be a challenge. To date, difficulty with measuring ROI and compliance issues have made business leaders skeptical. Results have been difficult to measure. Negative press has been a challenge to contain — and that’s why an employee advocacy solution is so important.
Micho Spring, Chair, Global Corporate Practice Weber Shandwick 1
In today’s environment where there is an alarming lack of trust in all institutions, employees are increasingly the key prism for brand credibility and trust. Engaging them can provide companies the best way to humanize and unify their enterprise voice — a strategic imperative in today’s environment.
1 Weber and Shandwick, Employees Rising: Seizing the Opportunity in Employee Activism
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What Business Leaders Want to Know
However, just because social media isn’t their strong-suit doesn’t mean that they won’t be able to see the value in it. Most executives — from sales to marketing to finance — got to their position by making smart calls and balancing priorities.
There are a number of reasons why your executive team may push back on an employee advocacy initiative:
Many Questions: One Answer
Company time and resources are a valuable commodity. Any new program that an organization invests in must be able to stand up against these commonly cited questions and concerns. To sell an employee advocacy solution internally, you’ll need a solution that can solve these key pain points. Not to mention, organizations that have seen the most success with employee advocacy and the highest increases in employee engagement all have had support from company leadership.
The C-Suite Doesn’t “Get” Social Media
“We don’t see the value in employee
advocacy.”
“Social media ROI isn’t measurable.”
“Our company social media
policy wouldn’t allow it.”
“Our employees aren’t trained to represent our brand on social media.”
“I don’t have time to run an employee advocacy program.”
1010
SOLVES THE SOCIAL DILEMMA
On Facebook, brands can onlyreach 1-2% of their networks organically.2
{ Tweet This }
2 Valleywag: Facebook Is Ending the Free Ride
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
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Employee Advocacy is Happening Now
Employee advocacy is already happening. Research shows that employees not only want to advocate for their company online — most are already doing it. According to research, 39 percent of employees have shared positive comments about their company online3, most without training or tools from their company.
Of consumers are more likely to buy a product when they hear about it from someone they trust.4
77%
11
3 KRC Research 20134 Nielsen 2013
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
12How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
Marketing and human resources professionals alike can recognize the risk of this situation. Most organizations don’t have the resources to manually track employee activity on social media. To attempt to counter this, many companies don’t allow social media at all — which is a huge missed opportunity. Organizations that embrace employee engagement on social media rank higher among consumers.
Employee Advocacy is Happening Now
4 Businessweek: How Jack Welch Runs GE5 Based on actual SocialChorus program implementations.
Branded Content Content Shared by Employees
There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow.
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE4
Content shared by employees receives 8X the engagement of content on branded channels.5
1313
EXTENDS REACHEmployees have 10x more followers
than corporate social accounts.6
{ Tweet This }
6 Cisco Employee Social Media Study
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
14How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
Proven Results: Advocate Marketing Benchmarks
Once your executive team recognizes that need for change, they’ll want to see the vision and details for your plan. To get started, you’ll need program benchmarks and a timeline for implementation. To do this, look to top brands from around the world that have already leveraged employee advocacy platforms to raise brand awareness and drive sales leads and conversions.
Results from employee advocacy programs leveraged by leading brands across all industries show that an effective solution requires these six elements:
+ Initial 90 day program
+ A proven plan and strategy
+ Employee training and guidance
+ A network of employee advocacy experts
+ A partnership dedicated to your success
+ A plan to scale beyond the first group of employees
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Proven Results: Advocate Marketing Benchmarks
Employee Advocacy Benchmarks
Based on data from employee advocacy programs across industries, here’s what the advocate adoption rates for the first 90-180 days of your program should look like:
EMPLOYEE ADVOCATES
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENTS
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
30Advocates
100Advocates
250Advocates
500Advocates
1000Advocates
0Engagements
4000Engagements
12,500Engagements
17,500Engagements
24,000Engagements
Days
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Proven Results: Advocate Marketing Benchmarks
Engagement Benchmarks
Based on actual implementations this is how your audience will start to engage with your brand’s content.
Advocate Marketing Value (AMV)
In the employee advocacy platform, all actions taken by an advocates produce marketing value for your brands. This is measured through advo-cate marketing value (AMV), a KPI based on 3rd party industry averages for the estimated value of social media interactions. Audience engage-ments or actions on social media from those in your employee advo-cate’s network also delivers marketing value to brands. The majority of employee advocacy programs need just 30 active employees to achieve positive ROI.
Employee Advocates drive marketing value through actions taken in the platform, such as:
+ Consuming content published on the platform
+ Sharing company content on social media
+ Motivating their network to engage with company content
Friends, family, and other audience members in your employee’s network drive marketing value by:
+ Resharing brand content.
+ Interacting with brand content through comments, likes clicks and more.
+ Downloading marketing collateral.
+ Responding directly to the brand about new initiatives
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Proven Results: Advocate Marketing Benchmarks
Many brands who have invested in employee advocacy programs have also found benefits to their brand that can’t be captured by AMV. These brands have seen huge value in being able to leverage their advocacy program to:
Increase reach and social media
engagement
Amplify marketing campaigns and drive
website traffic
Establish their employees as
thought-leaders
Power social selling initiatives
Increase employee
engagement and attract top talent
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DISCOVERNEW AUDIENCES
90% of an employee’s social audience is new to the brand.7
{ Tweet This }
7 DELL Study
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
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Case Study
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
How One B2B Tech Company Generated 12X Their ROIWhen the principal social media engagement manager at an enterprise technology company needed to get her employee advocacy program off the ground, she sought out a solution that would provide a platform and a partnership. What she found was SocialChorus and together their partnership has advanced her brand’s employee advocacy program — generating 12-times ROI in one month.
The brand’s employee advocates generated over 10,000 social media audience engagements at the company’s largest annual conference — driving new leads for sales as well as amplifying their marketing campaigns. The popularity of the program was widespread. Many of the other divisions at the company saw the success of the employee advocacy program and want to start their own programs as well.
PROJECTED MONTHLY RESULTS
290K
Audience Engagement
Active Employees
1.5K
INITIAL MONTHLY RESULTS
97K
Audience Engagement
Active Employees
500+
500
ACTIVE EMPLOYEE ADVOCATES
400
315
30
First 90 Days
BeforeSocialChorus
To hear more from Jennifer Kirk go to: socialchorus.com/JenniferKirk
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Your Company’s Employee Advocacy Revolution
Inside-out marketing doesn’t impact just the marketing department — it affects the entire organization. Employees who are engaged with their company are 2x as productive and are responsible for up to 80 percent of customers’ overall satisfaction — and not just sales and marketing are impacted.8 While all departments can benefit from stronger employee engagement, human resources initiatives to attract top talent are reinforced by employees advocating for their brand online.
8 Engaging for Success: enhancing performance through employee engagement, David MacLeod and Nita Clarke
2121
Your Company’s Employee Advocacy Revolution
ROI Accross Your Organization
DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE ADVOCACY VALUE
Marketing Leader Drive Revenue
Social Media Manager Increase Social Engagement
Digital Marketing Manager Drive Website Traffic
Sales Power Social Selling
Communications Increase Brand Awareness
Talent Aquisition Attract Top Talent
Internal Communications Engage Employees
With the right training and platform, employees can develop their personal social media brand to present themselves as thought leaders in your industry. From sales to product teams and more, having employees who are engaged with sharing your company news and culture gives an authentic voice to your brand’s message online. When consumers and job applicants research your company, they’ll find a multitude of well-informed and passionate employees who they can trust.
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
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INCREASES REVENUE
12% increase in Brand Advocacy generates 2x increase in revenue growth.9
{ Tweet This }
9 The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth, Fred Reicheheld, fellow at Bain & Company
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
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Finding the Right Partner:
“Like most social teams, our team is scrappy and small and it’s important to us that we have partners who are in the project with us for success. We believe that SocialChorus is a strong partner for us.”
Natanya Anderson, Director of Social Media and Digital Marketing at Wholefoods
Creating Content:
“We’re pulling content for our employee Advocate Marketing program from upcoming events, product launches and marketing activities. Look at what you already have planned on your social calendar and pull the most engaging topics and posts and ideas for your employees to share.”DeShelia Spann, Digital Marketing Strategist at Eaton
Motivating Engagement:
“Our advocates are sharing what they love about our brand through blog posts and photos on their social channels. What’s really amazing to see is the amount of engagement and conversation that is happening around the unique pieces of content that is being created.”
Jencey Keeton, Global Marketing Manager, Social Media at FossilFo
ssil
Eat
on
Wh
ole
Fo
od
s
24
of employees are posting messages, pictures or videos in social media about their work.11
50%of them are doing so without any encouragement from their employer.12
1/3
Your Employees are Already Talking About You Anyway.
11 KRC Research 201312 KRC Research 2013
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
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INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY
Engaged employees are 2x as productive and responsible for up to 80% of customer satisfaction.10
{ Tweet This }
10 Engaging for Success: enhancing performance through employee engagement, David MacLeod and Nita Clarke
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
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Employee Advocacy Training & Compliance
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Employee Advocacy Training & Compliance
PHASE ONE PHASE TWO
Training for Individual Departments
Tie training initiatives to business goals (ex. social selling)
Build program off of Phase One training
Basic Training for All Employees
Ensure smooth access to advocacy platform
Teach social media and platform basics for quick and easy adoption
Executive Training
Highlight social selling benefits and strategy
Show how executive participation drives advocate marketing
Subject Matter Expert Training
Identify experts and train on leveraging thought leadership
Begin after phases 1, 2, & 3
PHASE THREE PHASE FOUR
1 2 3 4
PRIORITY
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Employee Advocacy Training & Compliance
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Employee Advocacy Training & Compliance
Leanne Carmody, Head of Internal Communication at Heineken
I’ve heard all kinds of reasons why we shouldn’t be doing employee advocacy. You need to remain focused on what you’re going to achieve and remember that people are already doing this. The bigger risk is doing nothing at all.
30
ATTRACTS TOP TALENT
Socially engaged companies are 58% more likely to attract top talent.13
{ Tweet This }
13 Cisco Employee Social Media Study
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
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Launch Breakdown
The activation and launch timeline of your employee advocacy program shouldn’t be a mystery. An employee advocacy solution should come with a launch plan customized to fit your brand’s unique requirements. When presenting the program timeline to an executive team, here’s an example of what your employee advocacy roadmap might look like:
2 4
1 3 5
EMPLOYEE SOCIAL AUDIT
Show how employees are already sharing
content
ONBOARDING PLAN
Recruiting and training beta and full program
participants
OPTIMIZATION PLAN
Outline program KPIs and leverage them for the highest results
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Step-by-step strategy for integration
ENGAGEMENT PLAN
Leverage content that drive engagement and
enable sharing from any device
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FAST ROIEmployee advocacy programs need
just 30 active employees to acheive ROI.
{ Tweet This }
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
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Conclusion
Employee Advocates: Your Most Powerful Marketers
No one knows your brand experience like your employees. They’re experts, not only in your products and services, but also in your industry. Top brands around the world are already getting started with inside-out marketing to create connections between consumers and their most passionate brand advocates: their employees.
SocialChorus’ platform is a proven solution for brands to leverage employee advocacy within their organization. Curious to find out more? Check out our demo at socialchorus.com or give us a call at 415-780-8812.
10 of the Fortune 50
15 of Fortune’s
Most Admired Companies
3 of the 5 Largest
U.S. Retailers
5 of the 12 Fortune 500
Software Sompanies
4 of the 5 Largest Consumer Packaged Goods
Companies
3 of the 4 Largest
Telecommunications Companies
34How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy 34
Key Takeaways: Your Internal Buy-In Toolkit
How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy
More Powerful
135 brand advocates are more powerful than 1,000,000 fans.
Solves the Social Dilemma
On Facebook, brands can only reach 1-2% of their network organically.
Extends Reach
Employees have 10x more followers than corporate social accounts.
Discover New Audiences
90% of an employee’s social audience is new to the brand.
Increases Revenue
12% increase in Brand Advocacy generates 2x increase in revenue growth.
Increases Productivity
Engaged employees are 2x as productive and responsible for up to 80% of customer satisfaction.
Attracts Top Talent
Socially engaged companies are 58% more likely to attract top talent.
Fast ROIEmployee advocacy programs need just 30 active employees to achieve ROI.
{Tweet This}
35How To Sell Your Company on Employee Advocacy 35
Phil Jackson, Head Coach, Chicago Bulls
The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.
© Copyright 2014 SocialChorus, Inc. All rights reserved.